{"id":99221,"date":"2025-11-23T04:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T09:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=99221"},"modified":"2025-11-23T10:35:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T15:35:34","slug":"north-africa-ep-9-rommel-tightens-the-noose-aground-cyrenaica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2025\/11\/23\/north-africa-ep-9-rommel-tightens-the-noose-aground-cyrenaica\/","title":{"rendered":"North Africa Ep. 9: Rommel tightens the Noose around Cyrenaica"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bGES0f-nLJk?si=hOGeVD4sNbeOSdlF\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>World War Two<\/strong><br \/>\nPublished 22 Nov 2025<\/p>\n<p>April 1941, North Africa. The British forward line at Mersa Brega has collapsed, 2nd Armoured Division is in retreat, and Erwin Rommel&#8217;s <em>Afrika Korps<\/em> is on the move. What was supposed to be a cautious blocking force has turned into a fast-moving desert offensive threatening Benghazi, Mechili, and all of Cyrenaica.<\/p>\n<p>In this episode of our WW2 in Real Time \u2013 North Africa miniseries, we follow:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rommel as he ignores Hitler&#8217;s orders and pushes east after Mersa Brega<\/li>\n<li>The chaotic British retreat and fuel-starved tanks abandoning the desert<\/li>\n<li>The fall of Benghazi without a fight<\/li>\n<li>Wavell&#8217;s misjudgements and late reactions from Middle East Command<\/li>\n<li>The race for Mechili, a vital crossroads and supply dump<\/li>\n<li>The brutal reality of desert logistics \u2013 where sand and distance destroy more vehicles than enemy shells<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While Rommel drives his reconnaissance units toward Benghazi and Mechili, British commanders try to trade ground for time and avoid encirclement. At the same time, Italian commanders warn Rommel about overstretch, and German divisional leaders complain about fuel and breakdowns \u2013 warnings he largely ignores.<\/p>\n<p>By the end of this week in 1941, the Desert Fox is deep inside Cyrenaica, the British are burning their own supply dumps, and both sides are racing for the next key position. A clash at Mechili is imminent \u2013 and so is a showdown at the Er Regima pass with the &#8220;Devil&#8217;s Own&#8221; Australians waiting in ambush.<\/p>\n<p>This is Episode 9 of our North Africa 1941 miniseries \u2013 part of our larger effort to cover WW2 week by week, in real time.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to support this work and get deeper into the war in the desert and beyond, join the TimeGhost Army at timeghost.tv or patreon.com.<\/p>\n<p>Excelsior!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World War Two Published 22 Nov 2025 April 1941, North Africa. The British forward line at Mersa Brega has collapsed, 2nd Armoured Division is in retreat, and Erwin Rommel&#8217;s Afrika Korps is on the move. What was supposed to be a cautious blocking force has turned into a fast-moving desert offensive threatening Benghazi, Mechili, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[362,4,1118,7,339,5,230],"tags":[991,572,687,1066,1222,1274],"class_list":["post-99221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-britain","category-germany","category-history","category-italy","category-military","category-ww2","tag-afvs","tag-leadership","tag-libya","tag-logistics","tag-northafrica","tag-rommel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-pOl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99221"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99230,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99221\/revisions\/99230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}